“Information Bits from the Boss: Samantha provides brief answers to clients frequently asked questions”

​What if I want to create a business?
 
There are a lot of different steps that you need to complete to start a business.  The first thing you want to do is ensure the name you are going to be using for your business name is available in Pennsylvania. You check the availability of a name in Pennsylvania by visiting the Pennsylvania Department of State website. The Department of State website allows you to search a name on through its name database. To the extent the name is not available, you need to consider either picking a different name or you can get consent to use the name if someone is already using that name. Otherwise, you want to pick a name that no one else has.  You want to submit the Articles of Incorporation for a corporation.  You would want to submit the Certificate of Organization if it’s going to be a limited liability company. You want to submit a Certification of Partnership, if it’s going to be a general partnership or a limited partnership. If you are just going to be a sole proprietor and you want to reserve the name, you can do that by reserving a fictitious name so that no one else can use that. The good news is the Department of State website is easy to navigate and it does have the ability to access all of the forms that you would need to file in order to create your entity. At our office we do use the online filing system so if we do have a client who wants to start a business, the good news is that we can file the appropriate paperwork for them online and immediately send it to the Department of State for approval. There typically is a filing fee depending on what type of entity you’re creating, so you always have to submit that filing fee. If you have any additional questions, please contact our office.

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